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Petersen Automotive Museum gets $100 million gift from founders

April 25, 2011

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles opened in 1994.

In one of the most generous acts of philanthropy ever bestowed on such an institution, the Petersen Automotive Museum has received a gift of $100 million from Margie Petersen and the Margie & Robert E. Petersen Foundation, virtually assuring the museum will stay open in perpetuity.

"We're just really, really ecstatic about Mrs. Petersen's generosity and her commitment to Mr. Petersen's memory," said Steven Young, chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation's board of directors.

Robert E. Petersen founded a car-based publishing empire that started with Hot Rod magazine in 1948 and grew to include 36 monthly titles. He guided the formation of the museum that bears his name, from its opening in 1994 until his death in 2007 at age 80. The museum is one of several philanthropic passions of Petersen's widow, Margie Petersen. The couple was married in 1963.

While the donation does include "a substantial unrestricted financial gift," it is by no means all cash. There is a matching challenge that requires significant fundraising by the current museum board and management to continue. It also includes the one-block-square building and parking structure the museum has occupied under a generous lease since it opened, and an important collection of cars assembled by Robert Petersen during his lifetime, all as part of the museum's endowment.

"I am thrilled to make this gift which continues what Mr. Petersen and I began two decades ago--to build the most important automotive museum in the nation," said Margie Petersen. "My intent in doing this is to provide the museum with the necessary resources to continue to enhance its collections, curatorial expertise and exhibitions so that generations to come will be able to forever know the history of the automobile and its role in the evolution of our nation's transportation system."

The fact that it's located in the heart of hot-rod country is no coincidence.

"The sociological and cultural impact of the automobile, particularly in Southern California, is enormous," said Young. "The automobile's impact on our lifestyle, and Southern California's impact on the automobile, is huge. Detroit may be where they were made, but Southern California is where so many of the inspirations and great ideas came from. So it's really mutually beneficial."

While some deferred maintenance on the building will finally be taken care of, the first visual evidence to the public of the gift will be in "some exterior sprucing-up," said Young. Then the lower level of the facility, which is now used as a sort of ultracool parking garage known as the "Vault" that has housed some of the museum's great cars, will be converted to several other uses, including a research library for all things automotive.

"We have been blessed with a plethora of wonderful archival materials," said Young. "We will now be able to organize and digitize them and turn them into a useful database that offers access for museum members, scholars and potentially almost anyone who wants to be able to access it online for a fee."

The library will be pretty extensive.

"This is one of the greatest collections of broad-based automotive literature, film, photography and related assets anywhere, anyplace," said Young. "We have everything from original repair manuals to sales pamphlets, tech bulletins and scholarly archives."

For instance, the museum owns the entire archives of Devin. Where else are you going to find that?

In addition to the library, the basement section of the four-story museum will house a combination classroom and theater as well as more cars.

The gift comes at a crucial time. The recession hit all businesses hard, but it was particularly difficult for 501(c)3s such as the Petersen museum. Outside sources of income that had kept the museum going, such as parking fees for nearby businesses and event hosting, fell off after the recession. After Robert Petersen's death, there was no formal bequest to the museum. It was through the hard work of the board and management, in addition to the generosity of Margie Petersen, that the doors stayed open during that time (seeing 150,000 visitors a year). The gift announced on Tuesday assures the museum's future.

"I am fulfilling a vision that Mr. Petersen and I shared and planned to do someday. I am so happy that this day has come and that I can launch the museum into a new era of growth and expansion. While I expect the resources of the museum to be available to the world, this gift is especially designed to the benefit of the Los Angeles community where we made our lives together," Margie Petersen said.

Mark Vaughn
- After slumming in Europe five years covering F1 etc. Mark Vaughn interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show has been with us ever since because no one else will take him. Anyone?
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